The sacraments satisfy: Corpus Christi Sunday

            I have learned a basic maxim in my years of ministry in the Catholic faith: the sacraments work.  As a priest I frequently have conversations about how to make our faith more alive and what programs to offer to draw people into parish life.  But in reality, the core of our faith is never reinvented because the sacraments work.

            I have seen this firsthand in many ways.  This year at the Deep—our 9^th-11^th grade program—I sat in the confessional.  The kids came.  I have been on retreats where hundreds—even thousands—have gathered for Mass.  Often baptisms and anointings have drawn families back into the faith.  Recently our students gathered after Mass for praise and worship in front of the Blessed Sacrament and it was amazing to see our children grow in their relationship with Christ.  The sacraments work.

            Another way to think of the efficacy of the sacraments is to consider a line from the Gospel.  After multiplying five loaves and two fish, St. Luke reports the crowd, “all ate and were satisfied.”  God wants us to be satisfied.  He wants us to experience peace, joy and happiness and the greatest gifts he gives us to be satisfied is through the sacraments.

            Today we celebrate Corpus Christi—the Body and Blood of Christ—and we rejoice in the sacrament of sacraments.  And when we look at the entire Bible the Eucharist fits into God’s plan of salvation and we do well to celebrate this gift.  Our first reading comes from the 14^th chapter of the entire Bible and we hear about Melchizedek—a priest who offers bread and wine to God.  Sound familiar?  Later, when the Israelites were wandering in the desert, God fed them with manna—bread from heaven.  Also, recall that these wanderings began with the Passover Lamb that was sacrificed and then eaten.  Jesus—the bread of life and Lamb of God—offered his life on the cross and gives us his body and blood to eat. 

And St. Paul gives us the most ancient report of the Eucharist: “…I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”

            When you look around our world, people try satisfying themselves with many things—alcohol, sex, money, possessions, entertainment, power and more.  The fact is, God alone will satisfy you and He alone wants to satisfy you.  As you come forward for communion this morning, take and eat…take and drink—and be satisfied.